With all of the concern this week regarding "WannaCry" ransomware, we decided to deviate from our standard Tips and Insights to explain what is happening and our view on the situation and it's root causes.

“WannaCry” is the security story of the moment, and, hopefully, the year. There's a lot of the year left, but this worm has already caused an impressive amount of damage. Thankfully, due to the quick actions of a malware researcher in the UK registering a kill switch domain, the worm was shut down just as it was getting started. Were it not for those quick actions combined with limited exposure of SMB shares directly to the Internet this attack could have taken off like “code red” or “slammer.”